Europe INNOVA - Partnerships for better innovation support

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SIW is implemented by a consortium comprising 11 partners from 8 different Member States and these are described briefly below. It is coordinated by Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), which welcomes request for more information about the project, and the contact in TNO is:
Dr. Carlos Montalvo
P.O. Box 49,
2600AA Delft, The Netherlands
Tel. + 3115 269 54 90, Fax + 31 15 262 43 41
http://www.tno.nl/

	Partner
	TNO is one of Europe’s largest research organisations. The TNO - Strategy and Policy cluster (TNO-S&P) focuses on improving technology and innovation policies of governments, companies and knowledge organisations to help them support the creation of new products and services. TNO-S&P takes a broad perspective on the development of new technologies, related organisational changes, their potential applications, and their economic and social implications. Its work covers activities, such as research on knowledge infrastructures, assessing the impact of government policies on the innovative behavior of firms, the economy and society and exploring opportunities for, and the consequences of, new technological developments.
	Joanneum Research operates at the interface between the economy, science and politics, thus supporting the innovative capacity of economic systems and political strategies. The focal points of its experts’ work are in the areas of technology, regional and labour market policy and environmental economics and also in the development of quantitative methods of analysis and evaluation. The Institute’s research and consultancy services are aimed at decision-makers in politics and administrations and at private companies and public or semi-public institutions operating at a regional, national or international level.
	KITeS' mission is to understand the relationship between innovation, firms’ competitiveness and economic growth, all within the global economy. KITeS research focuses on the three key areas of innovation and applied economics, technology management and international trade. KITeS is an inter-departmental research centre, integrating researchers from economics, management and institutional analysis. It builds upon two pre-existing research centres (CESPRI and CRITOM), which have merged recently to forge one of the largest and most prominent European groups in the innovation studies area.
	AIT is the Austrian Institute of Technology, which is the largest applied, non-university R&D organisation in that country. Foresight and Technology Development is a department of AIT that deals with innovation and sustainability research. In its projects, this department investigates major challenges for the future, such as globalisation, economic growth, resource scarcity or climate change and the role of science, technology and innovation in addressing these challenges. A through analysis of each  of these issues is used to support the development of related policy strategies and instruments.
	VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, is a globally-networked, contract-research organisation and it is also the largest, multi-technology, applied research organisations in Northern Europe. VTT provides high-end, technology solutions and innovation services. It combines technologies, generates innovations and offers a wide range of world-class technologies and applied research services that aims to enhance VTT’s customers’ competitiveness and knowledge repository. VTT is a non-profit research organisation that operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
	IWW, or the Institute for Economic Policy Research, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology consists of four groups, which deal with a wide range of topics in economic research. Karlsrule is one of the leading universities in Germany and it was also amongst the first winners of the Initiative of Excellence awarded by the German government.
	BTU is the Brandenburg University of Technology with its Faculty for Mechanical, Electrical and the Industrial Engineering Institute for Business Administration. BTU develops forward-looking technologies, methods, and products with a strong emphasis on preserving the environment and natural resources. These are used in virtual production and lightweight construction, e-business and value chain management, information technology and electronics, automotive and propulsion engineering, as well as in power engineering. The Institute for Business Administration addresses micro-economic issues, in particular, using new institutional approaches and applications stemming from management theory and social psychology.
	The PRAXIS Center for Policy Studies was founded in 2000, as the first independent non-profit, think tank in Estonia. Its mission is to improve and contribute to the policy-making process by conducting independent research, providing strategic advice to policy makers and fostering public debate. Therefore, it highlights public policy problems in society, offers alternative solutions to tackling these problems together with independent policy analysis and research, fosters public debate and supports the principles of participatory democracy and finally, it develops skills for, and the understanding of, policy analysis.
	The Institute for Economic Research (IER) is an autonomous, non-governmental, research organisation with a long tradition in the field of macro-economic and micro-economic analysis. IER conducts research and consultancy activities in the fields of international competitiveness, strategic planning, organisational and financial restructuring of enterprises and related feasibility studies. Amongst its contract research and consultancy clients are the World Bank, the EU, UNIDO and OECD.
	The Department of Applied Economy at the University of Alcalá promotes several research lines, amongst which services have a prominent position. It aims to collaborate in the production and diffusion of knowledge about services at national and international levels, which can enable an improvement in the formulation of policies related to the service economy. The institution has conducted more than 30 international research projects on services, many of which concerned innovation.
	Dialogic is a research consultancy specialised in innovation processes and innovation policy. Dialogic studies how innovation processes take shape and, especially, what role users play in these processes. It also supports all groups involved with forward looking strategic research and research-based consultancy. Its client base ranges from small local organisations to large international organisations from both the public and private sectors. Core business areas of the firm are innovation policy, broadband, telecom and media, e-government and education and its key areas of expertise are interactive policy making, user surveys, policy analysis and monitoring and benchmarking.